The partnership between a city, a design team, a utility and a building owner can be aneffective means to realize efficient buildings in efficient communities. This paper reports on theprocess and cooperation between four partners to produce a comfortable and resource-efficientbuilding in a challenging urban infill site.Early on, the owner committed to a LEED Platinum building in a progressive City with acommitment to sustainability and to a New Urbanism design team. Together these decisionsestablished the foundation for an innovative building design process. Various technologies andprogressive ideas were entertained following the City's green building guidelines and the NewUrbanism principles. Design alternatives were tested through computer simulations to balancebuilding science with occupant comfort and available budget. The developer's building, amongmany highlights in sustainable design, uses only 40 kBTu/SF, exceeding the City's energystandards by 40 percent and California's Title 24 by over 50 percent; it harvests and recycleswater for a 60 percent reduction in consumption; and recycled/salvaged nearly 90 percent of itsconstruction and demolition waste.Lessons from the partnership:?? Cooperation is necessary to test possibilities and be innovative.?? Computer modeling can help quantify design intentions.?? Final instrumentation and evaluation is needed to verify post-occupancy numbers andmake sure that original design intentions and goals have been met.?? Energy efficiency has business benefits and behavioral costs.?? A city's vision for sustainable development requires developer/design/utility teams tochallenge existing regulations that do not support the vision.?? A sustainable building does not need to be high-tech. Active users can control a passivebuilding.
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